{"id":358,"date":"2010-08-18T17:47:00","date_gmt":"2010-08-18T17:47:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/genealogybank.com\/?p=358"},"modified":"2021-04-21T09:38:27","modified_gmt":"2021-04-21T13:38:27","slug":"finding-your-roots-at-alex-haley-museum","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/finding-your-roots-at-alex-haley-museum.html","title":{"rendered":"Finding Your \u201cRoots\u201d at Alex Haley Museum Opening"},"content":{"rendered":"

Alex Haley home dedicated as a genealogy library and museum.<\/strong><\/span>
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When 17-year-old violinist Joseph Matthews performed at the dedication of the <\/strong><\/span>Alex Haley Museum and Interpretive Center<\/strong><\/span><\/span>, he had no idea he would discover his family roots. Joseph, a high school senior from Memphis, Tennessee, was among hundreds who participated in two days of festivities at the Interpretive Center located behind Mr. Haley\u2019s boyhood home in Henning, Tennessee. The center was dedicated on Friday, 13 August, 2010. <\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Mr. Haley, who passed away in 1992, received a Pulitzer Prize for his 1976 novel Roots: The Saga of an American Family. The book tells of his ancestors being sold into slavery in West Africa and their migration from North Carolina to Tennessee. The following year a TV series of Roots, described as \u201ceight straight days of the Super Bowl,\u201d aired and remains the highest rated TV miniseries in television history. Among the significant impact of Roots was a surge in interest throughout the world <\/span><\/strong>in family history research<\/span><\/strong><\/span>. <\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

TIP: Search the Largest Collection of African American newspapers<\/a> is in GenealogyBank<\/a>.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Inside the museum Joseph and his family visited a FamilySearch center sponsored by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Through the free online program <\/span><\/strong>FamilySearch.org<\/span><\/strong><\/span>, Joseph explored his ancestral lines. \u201cBasically we were able to type in my grandmother\u2019s mother\u2019s and father\u2019s name, and from there we searched their records and we were able to find information about their parents as well as their siblings, birthdates, wedding dates, things of that nature,\u201d said Matthews. \u201cWe made a couple of steps to where we can make some pretty good discoveries in the future as to our family lineage. We\u2019re going to find out a lot more about our family and where we came from.\u201d <\/span><\/strong>

According to Art Johnson, FamilySearch area manager, the placement of the FamilySearch center within the Alex Haley Museum is a perfect fit, \u201cI think it\u2019s a great opportunity to simply share the message of family history and genealogy to individuals that come in and commemorate the accomplishments and successes of Mr. Haley\u2019s life. It\u2019s an opportunity to simply bring people in and help them understand their heritage the way that Mr. Haley did.\u201d
William Haley, Alex\u2019s son, said that resources available through <\/span><\/strong>The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints<\/span><\/strong><\/a> are very valuable in searching African-American ancestry. \u201cI always send them to the LDS Church. I say, \u2018Well find an LDS Church with a history portion and go in there and they will help you find out who you are and it doesn\u2019t matter what country or anything, they will help you.\u2019 Folks are very surprised at that, but it\u2019s true.\u201d <\/span><\/strong>

This is one of several related projects supported by the Church. In 2001, FamilySearch released the Freedman\u2019s Bank records on CD, a unique searchable database documenting several generations of African-Americans immediately following the Civil War. In 2006, FamilySearch participated in the <\/span><\/strong>Afro-American Historical and Genealogical Society\u2019s (AAHGS) national conference<\/span><\/strong><\/a> in Salt Lake City. An African-American family history conference is held in Salt Lake City each year. <\/span><\/strong>

The Alex Haley Museum and Interpretive Center and FamilySearch center are located in Henning, Tennessee, about 45 miles northeast of Memphis.<\/span><\/strong>
.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Alex Haley home dedicated as a genealogy library and museum. When 17-year-old violinist Joseph Matthews performed at the dedication of the Alex Haley Museum and Interpretive Center, he had no idea he would discover his family roots. Joseph, a high school senior from Memphis, Tennessee, was among hundreds who participated in two days of festivities […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[12713],"tags":[64,3,5280,6,1151,5289,5290,422,5300,484,1129,9,1762,12,5197,5320,2191,4580,5354,1761,24,5370,5426,5430,1152,5439,5445,481,442],"class_list":["post-358","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-genealogy-research-tips","tag-african-american","tag-ancestry","tag-book","tag-celebrities","tag-cherokee","tag-church","tag-civil","tag-civil-war","tag-database","tag-elvis-presley","tag-family","tag-famous-people","tag-father","tag-genealogy","tag-grandmother","tag-heritage","tag-history","tag-johnson","tag-life","tag-mother","tag-music","tag-people","tag-records","tag-research","tag-singers","tag-son","tag-television","tag-tv","tag-united-states"],"acf":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/358","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=358"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/358\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":67691,"href":"https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/358\/revisions\/67691"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=358"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=358"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=358"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}